I speak occasionally there.

There are so many commercial lenders and hard money lenders offering financing for 1-4s, so this tends to blur the lines a little bit.I don't know that I would draw a hard line between them as it relates to the smllaer multi-units. 

BTW, if you think $200 is too much to spend flying out to check out your potential location than you probably shouldn't be investing out-of-state to begin with.Purchase ManagerYou make your money when you buy and although homes do occasionally pop up on the MLS, the sure way to find a good deal is to market directly to home owners (via 1,000 different ways discussed in a 1,000 other places).

Many quality multi family properties never make it to the open market (hence the occasional jokes about Loopnet only having bad deals).

I am looking for someone who can be on call and I would pay well for handy work for the occasional clog or the occasional leak.

Instead of fixing a date, occasionally evaluate your properties to determine if it is the optimum time for them to be sold.  

After nearly 2,000 probate deals I have pretty high tolerance for risk.If you want to get in the game, you'll need to ante-up and occasionally have some serious money at risk. 

This will free up my personal income to expand my rental "empire" and afford to go on the occasional vacation/show/insert something the girl wants to do on a weekend here.

It's more beneficial to the agent than a "thanks for your help, but I did it on my own" phone call or email, better than a "let me take you to lunch", etc because this is how we make a living (and the occasional lunch is nice, but doesn't pay the rent), and you still have an agent (assuming they're willing to do the paperwork for the 1%) who will look out for you.Just my two cents.

All positive stuff..... the addition of some higher end apartments for the occasional Brooklyn or Beacon transport isn't the end of the world.